If You Don’t Stand Out, You Won’t Succeed

The entire Internet has a lot of self-help articles which can help you become a better entrepreneur and reach your goals. But once you’ve learned what makes a business owner successful, it’s time to make your business stand out from an overcrowded market.

One of the paths to success is to only have a few competitors, which is especially true for startups. You may not be able to eliminate all other businesses in your industry, but you can certainly avoid vanishing in the crowd by making your company appear unique, refreshing and too tempting for your customers to resist.

Consider the five tips below to know the basics of selling your brand as a unique entity and make improvements to your business.

1. Have a Distinct Value Proposition

You need to stand out from the competitive crowd with substance, not just style. Your “uniqueness” should make the customers feel like they’re getting value from your service.

You could put a twist on an existing product that most of your competition have missed and then sell it at a competitive price. Consumers love a bargain and will come in droves to a product that offers something new. Keep your eyes peeled for possible gaps in a product, and then seize the opportunity of reinventing it.

2. Create Unique Content

Your marketing efforts matter the most. It’s how you can communicate with customers directly. Engage them with content that’s different from your competition. They’ve probably come across hundreds of web pages and articles from companies in your industry trying to convince them to buy their service, so it’s vital that you tell them something new in a refreshing way. For example:

The competition says:“We provide a platform to help market your company.”You should say: “Why aren’t you using our platform to make your business a success?”

A personal and conversational tone can make this technique far more impactful, and when you’re using a tone that’s “quirky” or speaks different from the rest, people will listen.

According to HubSpot, 82% of marketers who blog on daily basis acquire a customer using their blog, compared to 57% of marketers who blog monthly—which is an impressive return. By doing this, you get more chances of people buying your product or service because you always have fresh, convincing content available for them to consume and people always like something new.

3. Sell Gold Dust

Not literally, though. But that would make your company unique, indeed. On a serious note, your sales pitches, or even pitches to investors, have to support your product’s special features. It should be the must-have “future of your niche.” If you can’t get credibility for your product service, chances are, you’ll find it difficult to move your merchandise.

Have a unique approach without sounding arrogant. You need a fine balance to convince customers that your product does exactly what it says on the tin without making false claims. To complement this, find a selling strategy that works for you, and go with it. IBM, for example, devised a social selling program which increased their sales by 400%.

4. Retain Your Customers in Style

It’s good when customers buy from you, but it’s great to make them stay. Even at this stage, you should be asking yourself, “What can I do differently to keep my customers?”

All the previous points lead up to this moment. If you’ve created a distinct value proposition, you need to reinforce that by sending follow-up marketing materials to those customers who have subscribed to you, and then sell to them or remind them of that gold dust. According to Help Scout, it’s 6-7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to keep a current one, therefore, you should dedicate a lot of your energy on keeping your current customers.

5. Supply, Manufacturing and Operations

Another effective way promoting yourself as a unique company is to look at three important functions of your business: the supply chain, manufacturing process and operations.

Ask yourself the questions below to see how you can take advantage of the potential characteristics that can make your business appear unique.

The Supply Chain

Where have you obtained your products, components or products from?

Can you say something about the location, such as “Naturally grown in the U.S.?”

Did some of your materials come from a more “exotic” location than others? Ingredients from Italy conjure more intrigue than ingredients from Illinois, especially for a U.S. specific market.

The Manufacturing Process

Did the creation of your product involve some unique manufacturing, e.g. handmade or imported?

Are you the first company to use the latest technology to create the service in question?

Have you created something entirely new, or did part of the creation include something different to the norm?

The Operations

Is your staff trained in a way that is different to the competition? If so, how can you share that with your customers?

Have you won awards or achieved recognition? If you have, make it a point to toot that horn. Doing so adds significant credibility.

Can customers receive the service you have to offer more efficiently than the rivals?

Conclusion

After considering the simple techniques above, you should look for areas that show potential for your company to appear unique and improve on them. Keeping this matter in mind, you’ll develop a strategy that will consistency give your business a unique image and success.

If you want to learn more techniques for standing out from the crowd, you need to get on the Mindset, Mechanics and Money – Daily Power-Up Call.

About The Author

Hello, my name is D. Scott Lofthouse, a 29 year Law Enforcement veteran and a 24 year Military veteran turned Entrepreneur, Marketer, Writer, Author, Coach and Mentor. I’m just an ordinary middle age white guy who is follicley challenged (bald), vertically average, horizontally gifted (overweight) and gravity enhanced who found that I was not prepared financially for retirement so I needed to find an alternative source of income. I found the answer to my situation and I want to share with you the system and education that has helped me to change my life.